Related papers: The Complete Barrett-Crane Model and its Causal St…
We study the cosmological sector of the Lorentzian Barrett-Crane (BC) model coupled to a free massless scalar field in its Group Field Theory (GFT) formulation, corresponding to the mean-field hydrodynamics obtained from coherent condensate…
We present a concise new definition of Finsler spacetimes that generalize Lorentzian metric manifolds and provide consistent backgrounds for physics. Extending standard mathematical constructions known from Finsler spaces we show that…
To solve the path integral for quantum gravity, one needs to regularise the space-times that are summed over. This regularisation usually is a discretisation, which makes it necessary to give up some paradigms or symmetries of continuum…
We link the notion causality with the orientation of the 2-complex on which spin foam models are based. We show that all current spin foam models are orientation-independent, pointing out the mathematical structure behind this independence.…
We construct a canonical formulation of general relativity for the case of a timelike foliation of spacetime. The formulation possesses explicit covariance with respect to Lorentz transformations in the tangent space. Applying the loop…
Local flatness is a property shared by all the spin foam models. It ensures that the theory's fundamental building blocks are flat by requiring locally trivial parallel transport. In the context of simplicial Lorentzian spin foam theory, we…
Lattice formulations of gravity can be used to study non-perturbative aspects of quantum gravity. Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT) is a lattice model of gravity that has been used in this way. It has a built-in time foliation but is…
For a physical interpretation of a theory of quantum gravity, it is necessary to recover classical spacetime, at least approximately. However, quantum gravity may eventually provide classical spacetimes by giving spectral data similar to…
The theory of noncommutative geometry provides an interesting mathematical background for developing new physical models. In particular, it allows one to describe the classical Standard Model coupled to Euclidean gravity. However,…
We develop causality theory for upper semi-continuous distributions of cones over manifolds generalizing results from mathematical relativity in two directions: non-round cones and non-regular differentiability assumptions. We prove the…
In this paper we tackle the issue of causality in quantum gravity, in the context of 3d spin foam models. We identify the correct procedure for implementing the causality/orientation dependence restriction that reduces the path integral for…
In this thesis we investigate the importance of causality in non-perturbative approaches to quantum gravity. Firstly, causal sets are introduced as a simple kinematical model for causal geometry. It is shown how causal sets could account…
A locally finite, causal and quantal substitute for a locally Minkowskian principal fiber bundle $\cal{P}$ of modules of Cartan differential forms $\omg$ over a bounded region $X$ of a curved $C^{\infty}$-smooth differential manifold…
We develop a model of spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic cosmology in Lorentzian Regge calculus, employing 4-dimensional Lorentzian frusta as building blocks. By examining the causal structure of the discrete spacetimes obtained by…
We consider Lorentzian manifolds as examples of partially ordered measure spaces, sets endowed with compatible partial order relations and measures, in this case given by the causal structure and the volume element defined by each…
We give a brief and a critical review of the Barret-Crane spin foam models of quantum gravity. Then we describe two new spin foam models which are obtained by direct quantization of General Relativity and do not have some of the drawbacks…
A powerful strategy to treat quantum field theories beyond perturbation theory is by putting them on a lattice. However, the dynamical and symmetry structure of general relativity have for a long time stood in the way of a well-defined…
We present a spin foam formulation of Lorentzian quantum General Relativity. The theory is based on a simple generalization of an Euclidean model defined in terms of a field theory over a group. Its vertex amplitude turns out to be the one…
Quantum field theory (QFT) in classical spacetime has revealed interesting and puzzling aspects about gravitational systems, in particular black hole thermodynamics and its information processing. Although quantum gravitational effects may…
In this article an attempt is made to present very recent conceptual and computational developments in QFT as new manifestations of old and well establihed physical principles. The vehicle for converting the quantum-algebraic aspects of…